Disclaimer: I do not, as any sane readers should know, own Chuck or any characters from it. I own this plot and Jackson and Carla, the paramedics.

I am back for another chapter.

Now to thank the reviewers!

Vandevere- I am glad you reviewed again! Yes panicked Casey is included. He's gotta panic! Well he's not much diff but more stressed and worried and less sarcastic. Oooh. I gotta potato chip story! That's great. I need a better name for the story though. Help.

Kay- yay. I am right on the money! That is always good. Yeah he could def distract some girlies if him with the tux and pool was any indication… I love these peeps.

EDIT: Just a note here to say that this chapter has also been reworked. Since it was written 7 years ago I decided to edit it so if the chapter seems different, that's because it is! I hope you all think it's better than it was.

Okay now read if you wanna see what happens!

Casey struggled to his feet in the wake of the blast. He moved slowly, numbly, in utter disbelief. Objectively he knew that Walker and Chuck had been in the club when it had blown up but his mind refused to process it. It was like his mind was still buffering; he knew what such an event probably meant but he continued to deny the possibility of their deaths.

It was like some sick twisted rerun of his childhood and the fire that killed his parents. Casey couldn't stand the similarities any longer. It was all too much. He needed to move, to act, to do something. One thought was crystal clear in all the chaos of his mind:

Sarah and Chuck had been in an explosion.

Sarah.

Disregarding any thoughts of staying incognito, he rushed forward towards the burning pile of rubble that used to be a popular LA nightclub.

"Bartowski!" He yelled, wandering through the wreckage. "Walker!"

"Casey?" a small voice called from beneath a large chunk of wall.

John quickly reached the debris and heaved it aside with great effort. Beneath it he found, not Sarah, as he had for some reason hoped, but Chuck. The Intersect, miraculous as it was, obviously hadn't saved the Nerd Herder from this catastrophe. Casey couldn't help but notice how beat up Chuck looked. His clothes were torn and he was bleeding from several wounds. He had a few scrapes on his face and arms and John noticed that Chuck was holding his right arm at a funny angle.

"Bartowski," Casey said gruffly, moving more wreckage off of his assignment.

Chuck coughed once before breathing more freely now that the pressure had been relieved from his abdomen.

"Casey?" he repeated again, opening his eyes blearily. Casey couldn't tell the full extent of the damage but he knew enough to see that Chuck would not be going into work at the Buy More tomorrow.

"Yeah kid, it's me." Casey said as reassuringly as he could through his worry. "Do me a favor, since you're injured, try not to move."

Chuck just nodded feebly and closed his eyes again in compliance. Then, conscious of the human Intersect's injuries, Casey lifted him up as best he could and carried him out of the wreckage. Once he was free of the debris, Casey took Chuck over to the van, which was far enough from the club to be have been out of the blast zone, and set him down carefully in the middle seat of the van.

"Stay," Casey said, shutting the doors and heading back to the destruction area to search for Sarah.

He proceeded past the onlookers and volunteers that had arrived and began his search of the general area where he had found Chuck in the hopes that Sarah would be nearby. Casey tried moving aside any debris that he thought was large enough to conceal her. And then, just when he was about to start yelling again, he saw a delicate, pale arm, protruding out from under a large piece of the ruins.

"Sarah," John whispered as he headed towards the slab of fallen ceiling. He lifted it slowly so as not to disturb her and then placed it to the side.

There, where the ceiling chunk had been, he found Sarah at last, though she looked to be in much worse shape than Bartowski was. She was unconscious and breathing jagged breaths but he was thankful that she was still breathing at all.

"Come on, Walker. Talk to me," He said as gently as he could.

He crouched next to her and moved her hair, now-matted with sweat and blood, out of her face.

Her eyes stayed shut, and in this awful state she seemed so helpless and small, which was just wrong. Casey didn't like the feeling it gave him. He didn't like to think of her as helpless. He didn't like seeing her like this either. He just wished he knew why it mattered to him so much that she woke up already. She was just his partner, right?

He shook those thoughts away. This wasn't the time for contemplation or self-pity. Instead he carefully lifted her limp form out of the destruction. At that point the ambulances and police had finally arrived. Several search and rescue officers had begun searching through the rubble for survivors as John left it.

Casey strode through the chaos towards one of the ambulances. Without dropping Sarah, he fished his badge out of his pocket and showed it to one of the paramedics he knew. It was more for confirmation, as he had worked with Jackson, the head paramedic, before. Jackson had dark skin and light, understanding eyes that crinkled with worry as Casey approached.

"Jackson, I'm glad you're here," Casey said once he was in range.

Jackson smiled grimly at the greeting, "Glad to help. This looks like a bad one. What's the situation? You see anything?"

"I was outside, so I don't know where the bomb originated. My partner and an asset had just gone inside when it went off. Both are pretty banged up," Casey reported as best as he could, trying to be coherent.

Jackson began preparing a stretcher for Sarah. "I know you're probably feeling bad, but it's good that you weren't actually in there so you could help them. Is this your partner?"

"Yeah," Casey answered. He then added as an afterthought, "Her name is Sarah."

Jackson seemed to get that it was hard for Casey and signaled other paramedics to join him. "We'll take care of Sarah. Where is the other one?"

Casey motioned towards where the van was parked across the street. "I put him in there so he'd be out of the way. He was conscious when I found him, but she doesn't seem to be as lucky."

Jackson nodded in agreement, taking Sarah from him as they spoke, getting her on a stretcher. "I'll send somebody to get him. In the meantime, you need to have somebody check out your injuries to make sure there isn't any real damage."

One of the female paramedics Jackson had signaled to quickly took over Sarah's care and she began checking Sarah's vitals and strapping her in.

"Excuse me?" Casey didn't get what the head paramedic was saying. He just wanted to make sure his team was taken care of. It was hard to pay attention though when Walker was being taken farther away from him.

"Your injuries," Jackson repeated as he stepped closer. "Someone needs to have a look at them."

Sarah's stretcher was being loaded into an ambulance and in the distance he could see Chuck being placed on a stretcher as well.

Distracted as he was, Casey still didn't get it. "What injuries?"

"You must be in shock to not have noticed that you got hurt," Jackson replied eyeing Casey carefully. "You've got cuts everywhere. You've already lost a lot of blood. That gash on your forehead looks particularly nasty."

None of this made any sense to Casey

"Gash? What gash?" Casey questioned, touching his forehead. Sure enough, when he pulled his fingers away, they were coated with blood.

"How close were you when the club exploded?" Jackson ignored Casey's question, getting some medical equipment out of him pockets. Casey was having trouble hearing him. It was like the noise of the recovery efforts was drowning him out.

"I was between the van and the club," Casey answered slowly.

"You must have been hit by some debris when it exploded," Jackson concluded before calling over Casey's shoulder, "Hey Carla! Can you help me out with this one? He looks like he's about to pass out."

"I am not about to-" Casey started but before he could say more, his vision was covered in black and he felt himself falling.

DUN DUN DUNNNN!

What will happen next! You gotta review to see!

EDIT: Yes, I hope the edits made that easier to read. Mostly I tried to correct grammar and ooc mistakes. Also I was using the wrong terminology for paramedics. I also changed the paramedic's name to Jackson because I have no idea why I named him Charlie in a Chuck fanfiction. Oh the mistakes we make in our youth. Anyway, it's better now, tonally and logistically, hope you liked it better.

In other news I recently discovered I never posted chapter 3 so after I edit that and wrap up the end of it, hopefully I can post it soon!

Let me know if you liked the changes.